AI ROI Calculator
Live Calculator

How much is manual work
costing your organization?

Adjust the sliders to see your estimated annual savings from AI-powered automation. Results update instantly.

Your Organization

Drag the sliders to match your situation

Employees on manual tasks (people)
12
1200
Manual hours per week (per person)
10
1 hr40 hrs
Avg. fully-loaded cost (per hour)
$45
$20/hr$150/hr
Estimated automation potential
60%
20%85%
What's typical for my work type?
70–85% — Data entry, intake forms, document routing
60–75% — Reporting, dashboards, status updates
50–65% — Scheduling, approvals, notifications
30–50% — Compliance checks, audits, mixed tasks
20–35% — Judgment-heavy tasks, client interaction
Default of 60% is conservative for mixed operational teams. Most ContentActive projects land between 55–75%.
Estimated Annual Savings
$140,400
in recoverable labor costs per year
6,240
Hours reclaimed
per year
3.0
Equivalent FTEs
freed up
$2,700
Savings per
week
312
Hours saved per
person / year
A team of 12 employees spending 10 hrs/week on manual work is leaving an estimated $140,400/year on the table — work that AI automation could eliminate.
Work automated 60% of manual tasks
5-Year Savings Projection Cumulative value at current labor costs
$702,000
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Value at Exit

For business owners & PE-backed organizations — what these savings mean in EBITDA and equity

Owner & Board View
EBITDA conversion rate (% of savings that hits EBITDA)
50%
20% — capacity redeployed 90% — cost directly removed
Freed capacity isn't profit until you remove cost or refill it with margin work. Use a higher % if you're eliminating headcount or direct cost; lower if you're redeploying people.
EBITDA multiple (your industry / deal context)
7×
3× — distressed / niche 16× — high-growth SaaS
Healthcare services: 6–10×. Government contractors: 5–8×. Industrial / energy: 4–7×. Mid-market PE-backed: typically 6–12×.
Annual EBITDA Impact Savings that flow through to operating profit
$70K
Equity Value Created EBITDA impact × your multiple
$490K
5-Year Equity Upside If savings compound at 3%/yr through exit
$2.6M
At a 7× multiple, your estimated $140K/yr in savings represents $490K in equity value — a return you could capture at your next transaction or refinancing.
Methodology & assumptions
  • Annual hours = employees × manual hours/week × 52 weeks.
  • Automatable hours = annual hours × automation potential %. Industry benchmarks from McKinsey Global Institute (2023) place automation potential for repetitive knowledge work at 40–70%; default of 60% is conservative for mixed white-collar/operational teams.
  • Fully-loaded cost includes base salary, benefits, overhead (typically 1.25–1.4× base). Use your actual burdened rate for best accuracy.
  • FTEs freed = automatable hours ÷ 2,080 (standard work-year hours).
  • 5-year projection applies a modest 3% annual labor cost increase.
  • EBITDA conversion: not all labor savings hit the bottom line directly. Cost literally eliminated (headcount reduction, contractor removal) converts at ~80–90%. Capacity redeployed to other work converts at 20–40% unless that work generates incremental margin.
  • Equity value = EBITDA impact × EBITDA multiple. Multiple is provided by you based on your industry and deal context. This is a directional estimate, not a valuation — use your M&A advisor for a formal figure.
  • These are estimates for planning purposes. Actual savings depend on process complexity, system integration, and change management. ContentActive will provide a detailed ROI model as part of your AI Strategy Session.